First Impressions: The first step to customer retention

Every year billions of dollars are spent across thousands of industries to bring new customers to a brand, product or service. Acquiring new customers is certainly a critical objective in most every business.

But then what? Many companies simply move on to more customer acquisition. You have to keep the new business funnel or pipeline flowing, right?

All too often, we see far less effort or resources put towards the first step of customer retention – onboarding.

Customer onboarding may be one of the most critical touchpoints or milestones in your customer lifecycle. It really is the first step toward retaining that new customer.

So how should you approach onboarding your new customers? One good place to start is to look at all the firsts that new customers may experience. Products and services can vary greatly and the firsts you may experience with them can be so different as well.

But if you carefully examine your customer experience after the initial purchase, what happens next? Look for firsts:

• Is there a first instruction on how to use the product?
• Is there a first time when you might have to service or provide maintenance to the product?
• What might the first experience with customer service look like?
• What happens when a first installment payment is made?
• What does your first communication with the customer look like after the sale?
• Is there a first request to complete a warranty card?
• How does your first cross-selling opportunity work?
• How are you treating that customer on their first anniversary with your product or service?

As the old adage goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Are you making a good first impression by providing a great set of first experiences after the sale with your newly acquired customers?

Some customer experience firsts can come right on the heels of the initial purchase. Some come later in your customer lifecycle. All are critical touchpoints or milestones in building a more engaged customer relationship and affect your ability to retain customers over time.

Onboarding is often overlooked or an undervalued step in the customer lifecycle journey. But when you look at all the first opportunities you have to engage new customers within a well-planned onboarding strategy – more can be delivered to your bottom line.

Research shows that customers who continue to support your brand over time will spend on average 60% or more than new customers.  And, it would be a mistake to not remind ourselves of another old adage – it takes 6-7 times more money to acquire a new customer than to keep one.